Forces Engaged: 1st Division, Army of the Border [US]; Army of Missouri
[CS]

Estimated Casualties: Unknown

Description: Maj. Gen. Sterling Price’s march along the Missouri River
was slow, providing the Yankees a chance to concentrate. Maj. Gen. William
S. Rosecrans, commanding the Department of the Missouri, proposed a pincer
movement to trap Price and his army, but he was unable to communicate with
Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, commander of the Department of Kansas, to formalize
the plan. Curtis was having problems because many of his troops were Kansas
militia and they refused to enter Missouri, but a force of 2,000 men under
the command of Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt did set out for Lexington. On October
19, Price’s army approached Lexington, collided with Union scouts and pickets
about 2:00 pm, drove them back, and engaged in a battle with the main force.
The Yankees resisted at first, but Price’s army eventually pushed them
through the town to the western outskirts and pursued them along the Independence
Road until night fall. Without Curtis’s entire force, the Yankees could
not stop Price’s army, but they did further retard their slow march. Blunt
gained valuable information about the size and disposition of Price’s army.